The use of water-soluble pouches for different applications, especially for cleaning applications, has become increasingly popular. Among many other advantages pouches avoid the contact of the user with the cleaning composition which may contain bleach and/or other irritant substances.
Processes for making dual-compartment pouches are known in the art. For example WO 02/085736 describes a process for preparing a water-soluble container comprising at least two compartments, each compartment being filled with a composition, and covering each compartment with a lid such that the compartments are joined by a folding portion; and folding the folding portion such that the lids of each of the compartments adhere to each other.
WO02/085738 describes a process for producing a water-soluble article comprising a first compartment containing a first composition and a second compartment comprising a second composition, which comprises producing a first compartment; filling the first compartment with the first composition and either providing a sealing film comprising the second composition and sealing the first compartment with the sealing film or sealing the first compartment with a sealing film; producing a second compartment from the first compartment and/or the sealing film of the first compartment; filling the second compartment with the second composition; and sealing the second compartment with a second sealing film.
EP-A-1,337,619 discloses a process for making a water-soluble pouch which comprises a plurality of compartments in generally superposed or superposable relationship.
Most of the dual or multi-compartment pouches described in the prior art are made by a horizontal forming process and as a result the compartments are arranged in a superposed manner. In general the compartments have similar geometry and dimensions. The available making pouches processes do not seem to provide flexibility with respect to the arrangement, size and geometry of the different compartments.
Often the geometry and size of the pouch is determined by its application, for example in the case of pouches for use in automatic dishwashing machines, the geometry and size of the pouch may be dictated, among other things, by the shape of the detergent dispenser compartment. In the case of dual or multi-compartment pouches the compartments are usually arranged in superposed manner and seem to be very shallow and sometimes a large part of the compartments may be occupied by air, this is particularly so in the case of compartments comprising a liquid composition.
Another drawback that can be found in the case of multi-compartments pouches is the requirement of intermediate films to separate compartments from one another.
There is still a need for a process for making multi-compartment pouches which gives flexibility on the size and shape of the pouch compartments and which use a reduced amount of film.